"I am not at all sure that it is arguable that unlawfulness started as early as alleged, but it is arguable now, that the length of time and the state of the removal process have made it so. There is otherwise a strong case for keeping the claimant in custody pending removal ..."
"Regarding the risk that I will abscond I would like to make clear that I know in the past I have moved around lot and have not always reported when I was supposed to. I never had a base and would move from one place to the next. I cannot do that anymore, I cannot keep bouncing around from one place to the next. I have nowhere to go anymore and I cannot keep running. I have been watching the years go by while I am in the prison. I was 23 when I went to prison and I will be 28 when the next judicial review hearing takes place. Four years is a very long time when you were in your 20s and I have had a lot of time to work out what I want from my life. I am older now and I want to stop running away from who I am and to establish myself somewhere. I want to be able to see my friends and try and find my child. I will keep to all conditions that are set. "
"Although the power which is given to the Secretary of State in paragraph 2 to detain individuals is not subject to any express limitation of time, I am quite satisfied it is subject to limitations. First of all it can only be authorised detention if the individual is being detained ... pending his removal. It cannot be used for any other purpose. Secondly, as the power is given in order to enable the machinery of deportation to be carried out. I regard the power of detention as being impliedly limited to a period which is reasonably necessary for that purpose. The period which is reasonable will depend upon the circumstances of the particular case. What is more, if there is a situation where it is apparent to the Secretary of State that he is not going to be able to operate the machinery provided in the Act for removing persons who are intended to be deported within a reasonable period, it seems to me that it would be wrong for the Secretary of State to seek to exercise his power of detention. In addition, I would regard it as implicit that the Secretary of State should exercise all reasonable expedition to ensure that the steps are taken which would be necessary to ensure the removal of the individual within a reasonable time."
"(i) The Secretary of State must intend to deport the person and can only use the power to detain for that purpose. (ii) The deportee may only be detained for a period that is reasonable in all the circumstances. (iii) If, before the expiry of the reasonable period, it becomes apparent that the Secretary of State will not be able to effect deportation within that reasonable period, he should not seek to exercise the power of detention. (iv) The Secretary of State should act with reasonable diligence and expedition to effect removal."
"(103) A convenient starting point is to determine whether, and if so, whether there is a realistic prospect of the deportation taking place. As I said in paragraph 47 of my judgment in R (I) there may be situations where, although a reasonable period has not yet expired, it becomes clear that the Secretary of State will not be able to deport the detained person within a period that is reasonable in all the circumstances, having regard in particular to the time that person has already spent in detention. I deal below with the factors which are relevant to a determination of the reasonable period, but if there is no realistic prospect that deportation will take place within a reasonable time, then continued detention is unlawful. "(104) How long is a reasonable period? At paragraph 48 of my judgment in R (I), I said: 'It is not possible or desirable to produce an exhaustive list of all the circumstances that are or may be relevant to question of how long it is reasonable for the Secretary of State to detain a person, pending deportation pursuant to paragraph 2.3 of Schedule 3 of theImmigration Act 1971 . But in my view, they do, at least: the length of period of detention; the nature of the obstacles which stand in the path of the Secretary of State preventing a deportation; the diligence, speed and effectiveness of the steps taken by the Secretary of State to surmount such obstacles; the conditions in which the detained person is being kept; the effect of detention on him and his family; the risk that if released from detention he will abscond and the danger that if released, he will commit criminal offences." "(105) So far as I am aware, subject to the following qualifications, the relevance of these factors has not been questioned. The qualifications are, first, that the relevance of the risk of offending on release is challenged on behalf of the appellants in the present case ... "(107) ... it seems to me that it is possible to construe the power to detain either (more narrowly) as a power which may only be exercised to further the object of facilitating a deportation or (more broadly) as a power which may also be exercised to further the object which is sought to achieve by deportation, namely in the present case, that of removing an offender whose presence is not conducive to the public good. The distinction between these two objects was clearly drawn by the Court of Appeal in R(a) v Secretary of State for the Home Department[2007] EWCA CIV 804 . Lord Justice Toulson said in paragraph 55: 'A risk of offending if the person is not detained is an additional relevant factor, the strength of which would depend on the magnitude of the risk, by which I include both the likelihood of it occurring and the potential gravity of the consequences. Mr Drabble submitted that the purpose of the power of detention was not for the protection of public safety. In my view, that is oversimplistic. The purpose of the power of deportation is to remove a person who is not entitled to be in the United Kingdom and whose continued presence would not be conducive to the public good. If the reason why his presence would not be conducive to the public good is because he has a propensity to commit serious offences, protection for the public from that risk is the purpose of the deportation order and must be a relevant consideration when determining the reasonableness of detaining him, pending his removal or departure." "(108). I acknowledge that the principle that the statutory power should be interpreted in the way which is least restrictive of liberty, if that is possible, would tend to support the narrower intepretation, but I think that the Court of Appeal was right in R (A) to adopt the intepretation which gives effect to the purpose underlining the power to deport and which the power to detain is intended to facilitate. Perhaps a simple way of reaching the same conclusion is to say, as Lord Justice Simon Brown said in R (I), paragraph 29, that the period which is reasonable will depend on the circumstances of the particular case and the likelihood or otherwise of the detainee reoffending is 'an obviously relevant circumstance'. "(109). The risk of re-offending is a relevant factor, even if the appellants are right in saying that it is relevant only when there is also a risk of absconding, as Lord Rodger pointed out in argument, if a person re-offends, there is a risk that he will abscond so as to evade arrest, or if he is arrested, that he would be prosecuted and receive a custodial sentence. Either way, his re-offending will impede his deportation. (110). The risk of re-offending is, therefore, a relevant factor."
"I am not persuaded by Mr Giffen that the refusal by this detainee to return to Somalia voluntarily, when it was possible to do so, is some sort of trump card. On this I see the force of what was said by Lord Justice Dyson in R (i), paragraph 52, namely that the main significance of such a refusal may often lie in the evidence it provides of a likelihood of the individual absconding if released. After all, if there is, in a particular case, no real risk of his absconding, how could detention be justified in order to achieve deportation just because he has refused voluntary return. The Home Office in such a case ex hypothesise would be able to lay lands on him whenever it wished to put the deportation order into effect. Detention would not be necessary in order to fulfil the deportation order. Having said that, I do not regard such a refusal to return as wholly irrelevant in its own right, or as having a relevance solely in terms of the risk of absconding. It is relevant that the individual could avoid detention by his voluntary act, but I do not accept that such a refusal was of the fundamental importance contended for by the Secretary of State."
"A period of 38 months' detention held by Judge Sales to have been lawful is a very long period indeed for administrative detention pending deportation. Detention for that length of time merits the most anxious scrutiny."
"1. Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be deprived of his liberty, save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law: ... "1. The lawful arrest or detention of a person to prevent his affecting an unauthorised entry into the country or of a person against whom action is being taken, with a view to deportation or extradition. "2. Everyone who is arrested shall be informed properly and in a language which he understands with the reasons for this arrest being made against him ... "3. Everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention not lawful. "4. Everyone who has been the victim of arrest or detention in contravention of provisions of this article shall have an enforcement right to compensation."
"With regard to enquiries such as these, there is only one way to establish if a person is Moroccan and that is through their fingerprints. Morocco has excellent records of all Moroccans aged 16 years in their identity card system (over 23 million). All Moroccans provide a set of ten fingerprints that are placed on an index card with their photo and some data about family and address. These are stored in a large warehouse and classified by the British Fingerprint Method. All these are going to be converted to a new electronic system with the introduction of the new identity card -- this will take four to five years. Unfortunately, the process to identify will be to send the prints (x 10) here. Photocopies are not good enough via the back and then for submission through the MFA to the National Police. It is not a quick process, but I have the contacts to try and speed it up. The searches are done automatically. First, if negative, it is manual. All fingerprints are archived and classified by the British Method. If you are lucky, there will only be a few hits, this can be a quick search. Otherwise, depending on how many hits, it takes longer. Along with the fingerprints I will require a report on the individual to include details of their status and reason for request as we do not have a translator at the Embassy. If you are sending me a report I would ask that it is translated into French ... for your info, my colleagues from most EU countries have tried to use the local Moroccan Embassy to progress such cases for the deportation of criminals. This has never produced results and they have established protocols through their Ministry of Interior's office to submit prints in manner described above. We should think of something similar if the demand is going to be high or need becomes important."
"Richard .. all received, thanks, and the attached report will be submitted next week (Monday). Due to lack of information, I cannot foresee the replies coming back very quickly. My other police liaison colleagues that submit this kind of enquiry on a regular basis inform me that they can take up to several months for the print results to come back ... I can help with submitting copies of the reports/prints to my police contacts to try and help speed up the process a bit, but I am pushed for time (single post) to prepare them, etc. It helps greatly if you could send me the French translation but you will need to discussion other arrangements for further submissions with [blank] and the FCO/Embassy. Sorry I cannot help more, I hope you understand." 33.9. By14 September 2010 , the Moroccan authorities had responded that the fingerprints for one person (not the claimant) were, "
"At present, fingerprints of suspected Moroccan nationals are forwarded to the Moroccan Government on a goodwill basis. It would be of great benefit to the UK and Moroccan Governments if the submission of these fingerprints were put on a more formal footing". 33.12. On3 December 2010 , John sent an e-mail to Mr Coy as follows: "
"It would be useful if you could submit a fresh Note Verbale concerning these submissions. I will give you a brief history: I am part of the criminal case Directive at the UKBA. We are tasked to investigate true nationality and identity of those foreign national prisoners who, because of their conviction, are subject to deportation orders, but in an effort to avoid deportation, hide their true identity and nationality. John [blank] very kindly revealed to us that all Moroccan nationals who wish to be issued a national identity card are fingerprinted from the age 16. The Moroccan Government hold some 23 million of these fingerprints. There is obviously no better source of identity and nationality than a positive search of a nationality fingerprint bank. We therefore submitted through John on2 July 2010 as a trial initiative five sets of fingerprints of those subjects we suspected of being Moroccan. Each set was accompanied with a brief interpreted letter (these are attached). On14 September 2010 , the National Police (DGSN) replied that fingerprints [blank] were not traced in the national archives. Officially, we have received no other results. We know through John, and a knowledgeable source, that there has been at least one positive result. I would suspect that there are others." 33.14. On16 December 2010 , Mr Coy sent a further e-mail to Laura: "
"On14 September 2010 , the National Police (DGSN) replied that the fingerprints of one case sent were not traced in the national archives. Officially we have received no other results. We know there has been at least one positive result and it is suspected that there are others. However, we are currently working on a Formal Memoranda of Understanding regarding the submission of fingerprints and are unable to exert any pressure. In summary, we have not received either a negative or a positive response from the DGSM if your client's fingerprints are matched with those in the fingerprint bank." 33.16. Mr Coy's recent statement, after dealing with the briefing note of October 2010, continues: "(9) There followed further correspondence between myself and the British Embassy in Rabat regarding the obtaining of the outstanding results from the Moroccan authorities. "(10) On1 February 2011 , these discussions came to a temporary halt when others within UKBA thought that these negotiations were contrary to stalled EU discussions. "(11) On26 April 2011 , legal opinion was obtained as our submission of fingerprints to the Moroccan authorities, as described, did not contravene new EU discussions -- "(12) Therefore, on4 May 2011 , I resumed my negotiations with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office regarding the UK Border Agency obtaining the four remaining fingerprints from Moroccan authorities. This has resulted in a Note Verbale being submitted to the Moroccan Embassy in London on the same date."
"(13) I have just received on5 May 2010 , a monthly progress report dated28 April 2011 . It says the UKBA have just contacted the agents of the ship I arrived in. They have always known that I came on a ship from Morocco. I not know why they did not contact them before now and not until just before my last hearing. In any event, I cannot think of any information the shipowners would be able to provide. The shipowners were Russian and therefore I could not communicate with them. They know nothing about me. I was a stowaway on the ship. All I can imagine they could say is where the boat left from which is already known and what I looked like."
"As Mr Mjemer was found aboard a ship as a stowaway when he entered the United Kingdom, I have contacted the ship's agents, OBC Shipping in Felixstowe, for assistance with this case. I have spoken with the manager there and he has agreed to assist me. However, as the ship entered on15 August 2003 , it is likely that their file has been destroyed. However, the manager has taken my details and will be getting back to me shortly with further information." 34.1. From the above exposition I make the following findings in relation to: a) whether, and if so, there is a realistic prospect that the deportation will take place within a reasonable time; b) the obstacles which stand in the defendant's path prevents a deportation; c) the diligence, speed and effectiveness of the steps taken by the defendant to surmount their obstacles, (1) there is no realistic prospect that deportation will take place within any timeframe; (2) the following what was agreed with the defendant's counsel as a fair synopsis; (i) the Moroccan authorities have a manual bank of fingerprints; (ii) in early July 2010, the defendant provided the Moroccan authorities with five sets of fingerprints, one set being from the claimant; (iii) the Moroccans responded in September 2010 that one set was negative; (iv) there is weak evidence that the Moroccans have completed tests on others and that one (unidentified) is positive. This was in early December 2010, ie five months ago; (v) the defendant has chased the Moroccans in September 2010 and early this month; (vi) there is no evidence whether direct or indirect that the Moroccan authorities will respond in any timeframe, or at all, in relation to the other four sets of fingerprints, including the claimant. 34.2. It is right to add that the Moroccan authorities have had, since July 2010, everything that the defendant can provide. Nothing new has been or can be sent. There is no information as to any positive outcome on an MOU with Morocco. Indeed, in the e-mail dated11 March 2011 , Mr Coy wrote: "
"123. In my opinion, the major component of the risk that Mr Mjemer poses to others is in association with his impulsivity and his reaction to situations in which he feels threatened or unfairly treated. These situations are likely to result in significant verbal abuse and threats of violence. The evidence relating back to his interpersonal violence resulting in injury, however, is less convincing, according to the information I have before me. Although Mr Mjemer reported the ability to manipulate his relationship with a member of staff that was on his suicide watch, this report was in the context of harming himself rather than others. "124. His risk to women, although mentioned in various documents I have had access to, appears to have arisen out of one incident that did not result in any injury and did not result in an adjudication which specifies any risk to women. The incident in June 2010 in which he is reported to have threatened a female officer by saying he would "fill her in" postdates the advice that was given in March 2009 for female presenting officers not to see Mr Mjemer alone. The details of the incident that led to this advice is not clear. In the absence of any further information, I have no reason to believe that Mr Mjemer poses any greater risk to women than he does to men, ie, similar to a previous incident, it appears that he has been verbally abusive and threatening to both male and female prison staff alike. I have no information regarding the alleged hostage taken and rape in prison. I have no reason to believe that he presents a risk to children. "125. In conclusion, given his behaviour both in the community as well as in detention and considering the HCR-20 assessment, I am of the opinion that Mr Mjemer presents a moderate risk of inter-personal violence whilst detained. This conclusion is based upon a number of historical factors within the HCR-20 that elevates his risk, aspects of his personality as well as his history of detention. It should also be noted that this "moderate" risk of inter-personal violence is one that is based upon the HCR-20 definition of violence, ie, actual, attempted or threatened harm to others. In my opinion, Mr Mjemer's main risk is to threaten harm to others rather than actual harm (although his three adjudications for actual harm cannot be dismissed). "126. Within the community, I believe Mr Mjemer poses a low to moderate risk of interpersonal violence, (again using HCR-20 definitions) mainly to the public who he might have confrontations with as opposed to known individuals. I have no evidence-based reason to conclude that his risk to women is specifically any higher than his risk to men, based on the information available to me. Historical evidence would suggest that he may pose a danger to public indirectly, through reckless driving, although this risk has, in my opinion, been reduced by his participation in courses aimed at addressing the use of drugs and alcohol and the reduction of risk is further supported by his current attitudes towards drugs and alcohol. "127. His risk of future offending, given the number of previous offences and convictions he is reported to have amassed must statistically be considered to be moderate. However, it is important to note that the nature of these offences are not highly likely to involve interpersonal violence. ... "129. In my opinion, previous risk assessment such as that contained in source 11, ie his 'willingness to resort to violent behaviour, constitutes a clear risk of public harm and, as a repeat offender, the likelihood that he might re-offend if released is high', conflate a number of separate issues -- risk of violence in prison estate, his lowered risk of violence in the community and his risk of reconviction (for any offence) is blurred with the implied dangerousness of such offending. Probation services therefore clearly distinguished between an individual risk to the public, to known individuals, to children and to staff in the prison estate. Probation services also differentiate between an individual statistical risk of reconviction and their dangerousness (which is dependent upon the type of offence they are likely to commit if released). I have outlined my opinion above using a similar system. "130. My risk assessment as detailed above would support a move for Mr Mjemer from the prison estate to an immigration detention centre. Despite posing a moderate risk (rather than a high risk) of harm to other staff in the prison estate (which continues to diminish the longer Mr Mjemer remains adjuication free), in my opinion, he would pose a lower risk of harm to staff in conditions of an immigration removal centre. As is often the case based on my experience of Broadmoor Hospital, individuals who feel consistently "wronged by the system" become increasingly frustrated the longer they are kept in conditions that they believe to be unjust. Mr Mjemer believes that it is unjust for him to be kept in prison and wishes to be moved to immigration detention if he is to be detained at all. Such individuals may then become more verbally abusive and frustrated, thus increasing their perceived risk and decreasing their chances of removal to conditions of lesser security. One way of breaking the cycle is to use the strategy of positive risk management in which, in this case, is to take the view that Mr Mjemer's frustration may well diminish if he is transferred to an immigration detention centre for reasons noted above. I understand that should Mr Mjemer continue to pose a significant risk in an immigration detention centre, the option of transferring him back to the prison system remains open."